Hey everyone just wondering if any of you have experienced some vegan discrimination when it comes to body building and sports?

I have recently experienced it and I can say I am a bit heartbroken but know its only going to make me stronger!

Here is an email I recently sent to Robert via Facebook...let me know if anyone can feel my pain! Thanks Everyone!

Just wanted to tell you that I love love love your book. You have inspired me to compete in NPC fitness bikini contests and modelling. I have made so much progress from your book and Braziers - Thrive book. I have hit some snags along the way but am looking forward to showing people that being vegan isn't a limitation. I feel I actually have an edge above other competitors. I have recently applied to be apart of a national fitness and training team for fitness competitions. Even without looking at my photos they read that I was a vegan and based upon diet solely determined that I was not eligible for the team. In fact the coordinator said that "Unfortunately a vegan diet will not be able to produce the types of bodies that our girls have" (Bikini Competition Models). Yes, it has hurt my feelings greatly mostly because I really can't fight her opinions of vegan bikini competitors at the moment. However, I am looking forward to proving her wrong! I have decided that I do not need to be apart of this team to compete. I plan on doing things my way (our way!) and achieving success on my own terms. To be honest I don't think I want to even be apart of a team who discriminates or thinks less of the abilities of the vegan community. Anyways sorry for rambling! I just wanted to say thanks for your book! and thanks for empowering me and so many other vegan athletes!

How cool would it be to join one of these groups, win a competition, and then announce into the microphone when they hand you your trophy, "Thanks, and I owe it all to my pure vegan diet of 12 years!" I'd pay good money to see the expressions on the judge's faces that day!

Ive never been razzed to much bout it at my old gym. A couple of jokes here and there, nothing to worry about but one time this dumb girl said " That veggie burger smells like shit". So I quickly replied "well your leftover chicken smells like a burnt corpse you fucking bitch"! I said it pretty much in front a huge crowd of people in the break room. No one after that mentioned anything bout the way I eat! I'm not one of those vegans that fuck with people who eat meat or go outta my way to start trouble, but I'm quick to talk shit back in a very harsh crude way.

yazzi, I think this rejection was a great gift. Otherwise you'd have gotten somewhere you wouldn't want to be. Such a reply on a "national" level is very unprofessional. It speaks bad for the person who wrote it and it is totally intolerable on a professional/official level. Of course, doing things on your own is a lot sweeter I think things worked out in your favour. Good luck!

It might be better not to announce you are vegan until after winning. There are so few vegans that it is unlikely one will beat non-vegans in any kind of endeavour. If there are thirty competitors and only one of them is vegan, most likely a non-vegan will win and people will say the vegan lost because of their diet. But the ignorant critics of veganism will not wonder why the other twenty-eight also lost.

In any competition it is usually the exceptional person who wins. This is the case when the person wins consistently. The win comes from a combination of training, natural ability, determination, childhood experiences, diet, a bit of luck and possibly the phase of the moon for all we know. A vegan diet might give someone an advantage (though it might not) but won't help with the other components.

Until we have many more vegans at the top in sports, any loss by a vegan will be trumpeted as proof that a vegan diet is a poor choice.

If there are thirty competitors and only one of them is vegan, most likely a non-vegan will win and people will say the vegan lost because of their diet. But the ignorant critics of veganism will not wonder why the other twenty-eight also lost.

I've had coaches that don't want to even look at my diet, since they don't know how to deal it. I suspect, though, that we'll become a vocal minority and will start to educate people. Bill Pearl has been doing this for decades now.

I just read "Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle" by Tom Venuto and he specifically writes, "A pure vegetarian (Vegan) diet is not conducive to building muscle, and a diet that is not conducive to building muscle is also not conducive to getting and staying lean. One thing you will never see is a rock-hard, massive and muscular vegan."

I sent him an email about this and he did not reply. Unfortunately, people do not educate themselves and are extremely ignorant. Come on, the Internet is right in front of you! Look it up!

_________________"That we cannot do everything for all the victims of injustice does not mean that we should content ourselves with doing nothing for any of them" ~Tom Regan, animal rights philosopher[list]

When I first started going to the gym even though I wasn't yet a Vegan but a Vegetarian. The first thing the owner asked was what I was eating and when I told him that I was a Vegetarian he basically laughed, then got serious and said are you kidding? I didn't want to bother talking to him about the many pros to being a vegetarian and instead just wanted to focusing on lifting. My trainer never said a word about what I ate but I'm sure he knew. I really can't get offended by anyone that has no idea of where I get my protein, or says that I might not be getting enough iron, all I feel for them is pity at the way they are treating their bodys.

_________________"Pay now for healthier food, or pay later to treat the symptoms of disease as a result of poor nutrition" Whole Foods to Thrive, Brendan Brazier.

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